How To Write Your Own Invocations

To “invoke” is to “call forth” and is traditionally associated with calling upon God. You can also think of it as invoking the spirit of your community—its vision of justice, its playful energy, or its familial feeling. Invocations can also serve to introduce the theme that you’ll be exploring in the service. (In Unitarian Universalist worship if there is an Invocation there are generally not Opening Words, and vice versa.)

About the Author

The Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom is the former Worship and Music Resources Director for the Unitarian Universalist Association and has served congregations in Yarmouth, Maine, and Brewster, Massachusetts. He is the author of Teacher, Guide, Companion: Rediscovering Jesus in a Secular World and Simply Pray: A Modern...